Wednesday, February 17, 2010

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today announced actions against nearly 70 work-at-home and job-placement scammers by federal and state agencies. The commission is calling the combined investigations “Operation Bottom Dollar.”

The FTC filed seven cases against scammers and said there were actions in four older scam cases. The Department of Justice brought 43 criminal actions. A number of them involved help from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The Postal Inspection Service brought one civil action and state attorneys general brought 18.

The actions were announced at an FTC press conference today that included officials from the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, a federal assistant attorney general for the civil division of the department of justice and Ohio’s attorney general.

In one of the cases, scanners victimized more than 100,000 people. FTC obtained a court order temporarily barring operators from continuing their deceptive, tactics and froze their assets pending a court order that would allow the agency to try to return money to victims. Authorities executed search warrants and arrested the two operators of one business.